Edinburgh

All comedians can have off-nights - you probably just hope it doesn't coincide with your efforts being reviewed.

For Joe Bor, the 2007 Jewish Comedy Factor winner and a Comedian of the Year 2009 finalist at the Leicester Comedy Festival, a nervy start in his Edinburgh debut solo show wasn't helped by a youngish, reserved audience who seemed collectively to be contemplating a bout of dental surgery rather than the end-of-the-pier humour they were being served up.

Among the street performers and acrobats on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, the local Chabad group has been handing out kosher snacks and encouraging Jewish visitors to this month's Fringe Festival to lay tefillin.

Rabbi Pinny Weinman and two New York yeshivah students, Yaakov Hecht, 19, and Herschy Hecht, 17, have set up a stall close to Edinburgh Castle, where performers gather to hand out flyers for the 2,000-plus shows.

Rabbi Weinman said that proximity to the castle was like "being a part of history, like being near the Western Wall.

Edinburgh has been hosting a summer school promoting dialogue and understanding between young Jews and Arabs in Israel and beyond.

The Windows for Peace project began as a magazine featuring letters young people wrote to one another and articles about their situations.This has now extended to two weeks of intensive workshops in a neutral country.

It is the second summer school to be held in Edinburgh and a prime mover has been Judy Sischy, director of the Scottish Council for Independent Schools and an Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation member.

The induction was performed by Liberal Judaism chief executive Rabbi Danny Rich and in his remarks, Rabbi Solomon stressed his pride at leading a congregation which involved itself in the wider community.

Representatives of other faiths and Labour politician Gavin Strang were among the guests.

A Scottish sheriff has thrown out a case against five Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign protesters who disrupted a concert by an Israeli classical ensemble.

Five people, Michael (Mick) Napier, Neil Forbes, Sophia McLeod, Kevin Conner and Vanessa Fuertes, were arrested after disrupting a performance by the Jerusalem Quartet at the Edinburgh Festival in August, 2008. They shouted: "These are Israeli army musicians. Genocide in Gaza. End the siege of Gaza."

A Scottish sheriff has thrown out a case against five Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign protesters who disrupted a concert by an Israeli classical ensemble.

Five people, Michael Napier, Neil Forbes, Sophia McLeod, Kevin Conner and Vanessa Fuertes, had been arrested after disrupting a performance by the Jerusalem Quartet during the Edinburgh Festival in August, 2008.

They shouted: “These are Israeli army musicians. Genocide in Gaza. End the siege of Gaza. End genocide in Gaza.”

A popular route to shul for Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation members will be off limits tomorrow because of an anti-Fascist march by Scotland United, organised in protest against a Scottish Defence League rally.

The park known as The Meadows is crossed by some members of the community on their way to and from shul.

Two Lothian and Borders police officers visited the shul on Shabbat to warn congregants to avoid The Meadows on February 20.